The Game Needs You

    I want to share something that I think is important for all American field hockey players, coaches, parents, umpires, and fans to hear - the game needs you.

    I’ve observed an interesting trend in the sport of field hockey over the past few years. It goes a bit like this:

    An athlete graduates from college, hangs up her stick, says goodbye to the game for good and sets off for a new horizon. She moves to New York or San Francisco or Colorado or Texas or some other new place. She forgets about the game for a while because the game doesn’t have anything left to offer her. No one knows about the game in this new place; no one knows what it meant to her. 

    A few years pass, she makes her way in the world, makes a life for herself away from the sport, and then a chance encounter happens. She reconnects with an old teammate, catches an amazing highlight on instagram, sees a kid with a stick on her way to work. This small but meaningful encounter rekindles something within her. 

    She remembers the part of herself that came alive on the field; the part of herself that reveled in game day, hated run tests and preseason, got annoyed with her coach, and wore glitter on her eyes for good luck. She remembers the joy, aliveness, and community that the game gave her. That small, chance encounter brings field hockey back into her life. 

    She aches for the sense of community that the game once gave her. So she starts looking for small ways to get involved. She looks for opportunities within her local area or her alumni group.  She takes an umpiring course, starts coaching a local team. She scrolls instagram for hockey content; she signs up for masters competition or Cal Cup. Before she knows it, she’s organizing her work schedule so she can watch hockey on Friday’s in the fall.

    In this rekindled appreciation, she recognizes something about the game that she couldn’t see all those years ago - the game needs her.  The game needs her insight, her time, her attention, her joy, her story, her perspective, her passion, her competitiveness, her talents, her curiosity, her investment. It even needs her critique.  The game needs her in her own unique way, the same way it needs you and me. The game needs all of us.

    So, if I could tell  athletes who have recently finished their college careers, or are about to finish up their final season, one thing it is this - the game needs you. You matter to the game as much as the game matters to you.

    When you are ready and in whatever way you can serve it, know this, the game will always need you.